Monthly Archives: April 2009

It started at 6.30 am so that I could have a bowl of porridge and honey (high in carbohydrates) 3 hours before the start. At 7.50 am I got to Dartford station (free travel for runners!!) and was greeted with a platform full of people carrying London Marathon bags. Why had I never seen these people when I’ve been training? By the time the train had arrived at Blackheath there was standing room only. I followed the queue of runners up onto Blackheath and entered into the Blue Start Zone. There are three starts Red, Blue and Green. Thought it a good time to visit the toilet, as there was quite a queue. Then had a sit down to take in the atmosphere and gave in my bag, which had a change of clothes at the appropriate lorry. Unfortunately, the PA announces that if you needed the toilet to start queuing or you’d miss the start. This obviously played on my mind and had the unwanted effect and I joined the queue!!! Emerged just in time to wander to the start and enter my allocated start zone of number 8. There was only 9 zones so I was right at the back so far back I didn’t hear the start gun/hooter. 11 minutes later I crossed the line and broke into a gentle trot and joined the runners from Green start.I have never run with this amount of people before and it was daunting and exciting. Tripping on other’s heels or tripping up yourself was a real problem.Also the amount of people watching and cheering was a new experience. It didn’t stop, both sides of the road until the end. 52 miles of people on the roads, on balconies, in offices, outside pubs, music everywhere, a wonderful atmosphere.Most were holding out sweets for sugar energy or cut pieces of orange. I must have passed thousands and thousands of people.

As you are no doubt aware from other posts on this site, Keith Furlong – ASL Earley Troop has been training exceptionaly hard for the Flora London Marathon and in doing so, foregoing many personal comforts to raise money for the New Hall Fund. I am pleased to report that Keith not only completed the Marathon, but did so in just 4 hrs and 20 minutes. I hope you will all join me in not only congratulating Keith on this monumental achievement, but thanking him for picking up the gauntlet and well and truly running with it so that “The 5th” can continue to move forward and offer the quality of scouting that many generations have become accustomed to.

Thank you Keith.

As soon as Keith has had a chance to relax and soak his undoubtedly sore feet and legs, we can hopefully expect a full account of his effort and what he actually went through to achieve what he has done.

It’s not to late! If you haven’t yet sponsored Keith – perhaps this is the first you have heard of it – you can still sponsor, donate, contribute or just simply give – as little or as much as you can by clicking here. Just because Keith has crossed the finish line does not mean we have reached our goal – please give to a local cause, for your children and the children in your community – thankyou.

On the Sunday nearest to 23 April, Scouts throughout England parade through high streets and attend a special St George’s Day service.

5th Dartford Scouts were no different and this year’s parade took place on Sunday 26th April, meeting at 10:45 in Central Park, in Full Uniform.

The 5th were judged “Smartest on Parade,” which gives us the honour of parading the District Standard at all of this years events.

The service commenced at 11am and marched off at @ 11.40.

The March left the park through library gates. Turned left into Market street, followed on to Lowfield Street, at the junction, turned right into Instone Rd, at the junction turned right into Highfield Road, at the traffic lights turned right into Spital Street, at the junction went straight into High Street, followed to the end, turned right back to Market Street, and then back into the park by the Library entrance.The salute was taken on the Library steps.

Well we didn’t have the weather with us, but the spirits of the Earley Troop were not dampened at all as much fun was had by all at this “Back to Basics” Easter Camp. Sure there was mud, rain and wet socks aplenty, but we were in excellent company and took the valuable oppertunity to revisit some of the fundamental skills of scouting, which could be often overlooked when we have so much excitement at our own facility. Continue reading →

Tonight is the final module in the current NSRA YPS course. In this session we will bring together everything the scouts have learned from the last few weeks of the course and get them ready for Saturday’s scoring competition.

Many of the scouts are showing some real promise with their grouping and application of what they have learned, so Saturday could well prove to be an exciting and very competitive session.

Tonights session rounded off the course nicely with a full turnout. Here a couple of pictures I took during the evening, which concluded with the highest scoring card coming from Adam, having dropped only 3 points with a handsome 47/50. Well done Adam and to everyone who has taken part.

Great programme tonight (21/04/09 20:00) on BBC4, in which Ian Hislop uncovers the story behind the book which kick-started the Scout movement. Robert Baden-Powell’s handbook, Scouting For Boys was written in 1908 and became one of the bestselling books ever. Despite it being very eccentric, very Edwardian and very British, Ian discovers that the book is actually very radical and addresses many issues that we think of as modern, such as citizenship, disaffected youth and social responsibility.